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AIX 5.3 on POWER8 Review from Gareth Coates

How To


Summary

Here is the "state of the nation" address on this topic. Note AIX 5.3 is NOT supported on POWER9.

Objective

Nigels Banner

Steps

This article written by Gareth Coates


Summary

  • AIX 5.3 is no longer supported natively on POWER8
  • AIX 5.3 TL 12 can be supported in a versioned WPAR (vWPAR) on POWER8 based servers
  1. Generally available: 14 October 2011 - Generally Available
  2. End of Marketing: 30 January 2018 - End of Marketing (so you can't purchase it)
  3. End of Support: 30 April 2019 - End of Service (extended service might or might not be available)
IBM no longer provides Installation Media for AIX 5.3 (IBM does not encourage fresh AIX 5.3 installs) so the customer would use a 5.3 mksysb.
The host partition must be running AIX V7.1 latest available TL.

Native AIX 5.3 on POWER details

  1. Generally available: 13 August 2004 
  2. End of Marketing: 29 April 2011 
  3. End of Support: 30 April 2012

AIX 5.3 Workload Partitions for AIX 7 on POWER7 

  1. Generally available: 12 October 2011

IBM AIX 5.3 Workload Partitions for AIX 7 V1.1.0 (Product Number: 5765-WP7) also called Versioned WPAR

  • Briefly: AIX 5.3 Workload Partitions:
  • Adds a kernel compatibility layer that allows AIX 5.3 commands and libraries running in the workload partition to function correctly (emulating AIX 5.3 behavior) when run on AIX 7.1
  • Take advantage of the latest IBM Power Systems hardware enhancements sooner by running your legacy applications in a virtualized workload partition environment
  1. Announced: 02 October 2011 
  2. Available: 04 October 2011
  3. End of Marketing: 20 January 2018
  4. Service Discontinued: 20 April 2019

Is POWER8 supported

Hardware requirements:

  • IBM systems that run the IBM POWER7 and POWER8 processors

Software requirements:

  • AIX 7.1, or later 
  • AIX 5.3 with the 5300-12 Technology Level 

Additional Information


If you find errors or have question, email me: 

  • Subject: AIX 5.3
  • Email: nag@uk.ibm.com 

Also, find me on

Document Location

Worldwide

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Document Information

Modified date:
21 March 2022

UID

ibm11115673